Dissolution–precipitation growth of doped monolayer molybdenum disulfide through double-faced precursor supply

Substitutional doping is a powerful strategy to modulate the properties and functionalities of two-dimensional (2D) materials while control of dopants during the process is still challenging. Recently, we invented a dissolution–precipitation (DP) method to grow 2D materials. Here, we further extend this method by developing a double-faced precursor supply DP growth strategy to substitutionally dope metal atoms into monolayer MoS2 lattices. In this double-faced precursor supply DP method, the Mo source and dopant source are supplied from the bottom and top surface of the glass substrate, respectively, to separate their diffusion paths. As a result, monolayer MoS2 incorporated with different concentrations of V atoms were grown by tuning the amount of V precursor, which exhibited different types of electrical transport properties. This new doping method is universal in growing several transition metal atom doped MoS2, including Re, Fe, and Cr, which will extend the applications of 2D materials.